UNISON LLC

Q: What is UNISON?

A: UNISON is a process supported by leading edge technology that links everyone in a meeting room via a local area network (LAN) using patented UNISON software, a CPU, LCD screens and keyboard at each table. UNISON increases audience participation and provides a two-way conduit for collecting and sharing knowledge and information instantaneously. It is a collaborative interactive meetings tool that promotes action and helps users achieve desired outcomes.

Q: How does UNISON work?

A: UNISON has an interactive LAN framework and modules that can be easily tailored with data and content for a client's meeting. UNISON LLC works closely with clients or agencies to create and apply the UNISON technology to their meeting presentations. UNISON provides a complete meetings roadmap that starts with objectives and desired outcomes for the meeting(s) and includes planning, development and tutorials on the various UNISON features that often spark new thinking for ways to gather and share data from meeting attendees and presenters. The UNISON Central Team, which is physically onsite at the meeting, provides simple pre-meeting training sessions and support for presenters. UNISON LLC provides all hardware and software equipment, which includes CPUs, LCD screens and keyboards at each table, presenter teleprompters and/or screens and large screens placed around the room with all A/V support.

Q: What are the advantages of using UNISON?

A: UNISON provides numerous advantages that can be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. Users of UNISON find that it consistently ranks "high" in terms of meeting attendees' ranking of likes and usefulness of meeting elements. UNISON ensures that real work gets done in real time and that all intellectual property (data and thinking) is captured and then prioritized by the client and the UNISON Central Team and shared as desired during a meeting. It empowers participants with the same opportunity to participate and contribute regardless of their culture, customs, communication style, or personality – this is important when bringing together people from across the country and the globe. UNISON is a meeting tool that provides a conduit for two-way dialogue, knowledge sharing and data capture. UNISON is a proven tool to effectively increase audience participation, or attention and provides a two-way conduit for collecting and sharing knowledge and information instantaneously. Presenters find UNISON easy to use and connect them directly to their audience in a personal and intimate way. It allows all meeting participants (presenters and the audience) to become and stay involved in all aspects of the meeting. Because everyone is connected, it can also save time and money for breakout sessions and data can be expressed and shared immediately, not after attendees return back to their offices. In short, UNISON is a collaborative interactive tool that promotes action and helps users achieve desired outcomes.

Q: How much does UNISON cost?

A: Like any meeting, costs depend on the number of presentations and the number of meeting attendees. UNISON has been designed to take advantage of its interactive framework that can be cost-effectively tailored to a client's content, needs and objectives. In terms of return on investment (ROI), users of UNISON have found the return well worth the investment. In terms of dollars, UNISON often costs less than a night's stay in a hotel for each attendee. And considering that UNISON can contribute to a meeting's productivity and efficiency – in some cases even eliminating the need for breakout sessions and meeting follow-up – UNISON can actually pay for itself and not add to incremental meeting costs. Moreover, the real cost is measured in what UNISON helps companies derive from their meeting and that is achieving actions and desired outcomes.

Q: Explain the various UNISON features?

A: UNISON has several features known as the U•Functions that can be easily customized with content and data provided by the client. These various modules include:

U•Ask, a Q&A function that allows audience and speaker to communicate even during the course of a presentation
U-Learn, a process the tests and certifies an u nlimited number of partipants in real time.
U•Think, a way for the audience to come to a consensus, or Brainstorm answers to specific questions posed from the podium
U•Talk, allows for the audience to communicate with each other through open discussion and feedback
U•Select, a method through which the audience can rank issues and concerns to find out what’s most important to them
U•Compete, a function that allows the audience to score points based on the value of their responses
U•Tell Us, a method of surveying the audience for feedback, before, during and after the event, allowing presenters to shape the meeting to the audience's needs and harvest their critical responses afterward.

All of these UNISON features deliver instantaneous feedback from each table that can be shared throughout the room simultaneously or designated for specific recipients. For additional information about the UNISON functions, click here.

Q: How much training is required to use UNISON?

A: UNISON has been designed to keep training to a minimum. In fact, meeting audience users need no training at all other than typing on a keyboard, which can be done by the fastest keystroker at the table. There is some training or rehearsal required of presenters using UNISON – similar to what might be conducted for someone using a teleprompter for the first time. This training or rehearsal can be conducted onsite prior to the meeting. UNISON is user-friendly and its feature modules are designed to be pre-loaded with little "technical" knowledge necessary. A UNISON Central Team is onsite to seamlessly direct and manage the flow of information being presented, collected and shared at the meeting.

Q: What are some of the ways that companies have successfully used UNISON to achieve goals?

A: UNISON is best used for achieving specific goals, whether they are broad or narrow. Some customers have successfully used UNISON to increase meeting participation, promote actions, solve problems, extract mission critical data, train employees, brainstorm new ideas and knowledge, justify return on investment on meetings, obtain immediate results and make their speakers and presenters more effective and dynamic.

One UNISON client needed to familiarize its 110 managing directors with all the offerings of its business. The managers were divided up into groups of seven per table to use UNISON to collectively provide answers to questions posed by the client. Within 30 minutes data was collected and shared instantaneously with all 110 managing directors, saving time and producing collective knowledge and actions.

A pharmaceutical customer needed to introduce a new product to several physicians/consultants in its consultants network and elicit their expert opinions and advice to guide their development, marketing and sales process by giving feedback on key issues. Following didactic presentations by the company's speakers, attendees were able to ask anonymous questions using U•Talk function. All questions were reviewed and prioritized by the UNISON Central Team, then passed onto the speaker onstage and all other audience members via the screens on each table.

Following this module, participants conferred with their colleagues at each table, then used the U•Think consensus building function to input opinions about topics raised during the presentations. The client received invaluable information from the source…the physicians…with feedback about improvements to their product planning process. Each attendee received the benefit of free-flowing information from the company and colleagues alike, which would have been impossible in a completely one-way, didactic presentation. Moreover, the physicians felt their time was well spent and their input was valued and actually used immediately by the company. In response to the overwhelmingly positive reviews, the company is using UNISON in its future consultant network meetings.

For more instances of how companies used UNISON, click here to view our case studies.

Q: How much lead time do I need to use UNISON?

A: UNISON does require upfront planning and development but is designed to enable information and data to be "loaded" efficiently. Depending on the complexity and number of presentations, planning and development can take as little as a few weeks to a couple of months in advance of a meeting. UNISON LLC personnel work closely with clients to take existing content and/or develop new content that can yield the best results using UNISON. As the demand for UNISON continues to grow, availability requires advanced planning and scheduling as well. Some clients have even structured their entire meetings around the UNISON™ function modules making advanced planning and scheduling essential.

Q: Do other companies offer UNISON?

A: Today, UNISON is offered exclusively through UNISON LLC. The company is exploring "re-seller" and "licensing" options to offer the patented UNISON process and technology to other companies on a case-by-case basis. Additional details about this will be announced shortly.

Q: How complicated is it to use UNISON?

A: UNISON is simple to use. The proprietary UNISON module features are pre-programmed to accept tailored data and information for meeting use. UNISON LLC personnel assist in all presentation development and preparedness training and the UNISON Central Team provides technical execution and management prior to the meeting and onsite. UNISON LLC personnel also can help clients develop content to best maximize the UNISON functionality and help users achieve even greater desired outcomes.

Q: Can you assure 100% uptime of UNISON in meetings?

A: The UNISON Central Team, which is onsite through the duration of the meeting, guarantees 100% uptime and functionality of the UNISON system. All UNISON hardware and software has seamless duplicate backup to ensure this flawless functionality. Additional CPUs keyboards, connections and LCD screens are available for immediate replacement should a failure occur.

Q: Why is UNISON such an effective meeting tool?

A: UNISON was born out of a client necessity to get more mission critical thinking and outcomes from its senior level people attending global meetings. Moreover, this had to be accelerated in order to meet a business requirement from one of this client's customers so it could retain its global accounting business. Experienced professionals who have been successfully producing and staging large mission critical corporate meetings since 1989 developed UNISON. This is why the functionality, usefulness and outcomes of using UNISON work so well in a meeting environment. From initial development to its current expanded functionality in version 4.0 today, UNISON is all about making meetings more effective and valuable to companies and those who attend them.

Click here to view a video demo, a full description of features or client testimonials.